Saturday, May 18, 2013

Peachy Keen, Jellybean

     I apologize for the almost month-long silence over here on the blog. I was completely overwhelmed with James And The Giant Peach. I loved my character and enjoyed being a physical, comedic actor, but I would lie if I said the rehearsal process and performance schedule wasn't taxing. It absolutely was.   I had bruises all over my body (still do, actually) and allergies and fatigue had affected my voice. It probably wasn't too noticeable and I'm probably being too hard on myself but I hate feeling like I'm doing less-than-my-best work. Sometimes (most of the time) you don't get the luxury of an understudy and a day of rest and you have to push through two-show days, rude audiences on their cell phones, and illness running rampant through the cast. But I really did love it overall. Now that I've had some time away from it I definitely miss it. I know the kids in the show had a great experience too and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. The sad truth is that I don't know when I will be doing a musical comedy again. It might be a long time. (I hope not!) So I'm glad I stayed as positive as I could and that this show has me filled with great memories.








 (Above photos by the lovely Heather Canterbury)


For now I am focusing on teaching kiddos, which will occupy my entire summer. I have a class right now of five 7-8 year-olds and they are a lot to handle, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to handle about a hundred more! But they are sweet kids and it makes me happy knowing I am helping them gain confidence in themselves and guiding them to be creative little people. I have a few more weeks before I'm full-time teaching, so I really have to find some things to do to keep my occupied. Should I clean my apartment? Of course. Am I going to? Very unlikely. Hopefully I will get some bike time in before the weather is so unbearable that biking would be suicide. Arkansas summer, I am not prepared for you in the least. Have pity on this poor Jersey girl.

Here are some recent off-stage moments.


I took far too many pictures of myself as the worm. I might have been a little obsessed.

On his big 3-0 Jeremy arrived to the green room to find a pretty wonderful birthday cake made by the boy playing James. Biggest sweethearts ever, both of them.

Accurate Centipede cake with 42 (not 100) pairs of boots, dragon flesh (well aged, not fresh), a beetle with just a splash of vinegar, and noodles made from poodles on a slice of garden hose.

The old-people bugs.

The insects.

Ex-Billy Goats drinking Goats do Roam wine.